Death Walker - Second Season

In the town of Hallettsville, Texas sits an extremely haunted location

veiled in mystery called the Old Lavaca Jail.

Most of the records belonging to the jail would be destroyed by two floods,

which makes tracing a complete history near impossible.

In order to understand the secrets of this old jail,

you must step foot inside of it to see and experience

the energies that time has left behind.

This historic town of Hallettsville was prominent during the American frontier.

I was told that it was a place where a lot of small town justice would occur.

A confirmed hanging tree that still stands today

is located only a half a mile away from the Old Lavaca Jail.

This place holds 119 years of foreboding uneasiness

by those who were deduced to nothing.

The construction of the jail began in 1884.

The jail was officially opened and was active in 1886

and closed as the county jail in 2005,

making it the second longest continuously operating jail in Texas.

Multiple suicides inside this jail by inmates are said to have occurred,

but neither of them can be 100 per cent confirmed

due to the death records being destroyed.

Gallows once sat on the grounds of the Old Lavaca County Jail

and has since been replaced with a car port and apartment unit.

An inmate named Marguerita Reyna was hanged for criminally assaulting a child of seven years old.

Reyna's neck was broken from the fall of seven and half feet

and was pronounced dead within 13 minutes.

Reyna would proclaim his innocence all the way to his end.

While it sat vacant in 2005,

this haunted jail would become extremely dilapidated due to the elements.

A long time paranormal investigator, Debra Fawcett,

would make a deal with the building's owner

that if she cleaned and renovated the building,

in return she'll be granted lifetime access for paranormal investigations.

The owner accepted.

Debra would go on to transform this place into what it is today,

and is currently the location manager.

Due to Debra being present at this location for the last six years,

she was able to tell me about the extreme paranormal activity

that she and others have frequently witnessed inside this jail.

Paranormal activity at this location includes banging of cells,

distant disembodied voices and conversations,

shadow figures, disembodied laughters,

sneering and whispering,

cold spots, sense of uneasiness,

doors opening and closing by themselves,

and constant feelings of being watched.

Debra also told me that she and her fellow paranormal investigator, Lisa,

have episodes of lost time.

They often heard each other in places that they weren't in.

Debra was even pushed down the stairs by an unseen force.

I became very intrigued with this location when Debra informed me

that even though a lot of residual activity takes place within the jail,

something very intelligent commonly interacts with those who dare to call it out.

To me, intelligent hauntings are very fascinating

because they go way beyond the expected typical haunting

that most people are used to experiencing.

This intelligent entity here is known to touch, scratch and growl at those who call out to it.

I will live here for the next two days and focus my investigation entirely

on making contact with this intelligent entity

to see if it's the energy of a former inmate, or perhaps that of a deceased prison guard.

I will allow whoever or whatever these entities are my permission

to physically lash out at me

so I can document physical interactions with an unseen supernatural force

at the Old Lavaca Jail.

The cells upstairs were constructed in 1874,

then they were brought over here and then the jail was built.

We had your women's side, we had your men's side.

From what we know, we know of three deaths for sure that occurred here.

Two we're not sure of.

We know a hanging happened here on the men's side in one of the rooms

and in the women's cell over here.

The one that we know about for sure is Jacob Hornshu

who was brought in in 1890

and he was brought in for alcohol poisoning and a morphine overdose

and just acting a fool.

He was here for about an hour and he died from the alcohol poisoning and morphine.

Not exactly sure which cell he passed in, but we are sure of that.

I guess it was in the late 1800s, early 1900s,

we had a couple of guys try to escape from the women's side.

They cut one of the bars out and somehow finagled their way through

and worked their way down the side of the building

and Sheriff Hutchin's wife actually saw them, caught them and they brought 'em back.

Then we had a couple of guys that climbed on top of the cells here

and climbed up in the attic and they got out,

and it was super cold outside and they were caught just down the road and brought back.

It's a different kind of heaviness up here in general.

You walk up here and you might be walking through the hallway and it feels fine,

and then all of a sudden, I mean it's almost hard to breathe,

but sometimes it's darker than dark, like you can't see your hands in front of your face

and you could feel it.

So we know for sure that there were 23 public hangings. Those were confirmed.

A confirmed three deaths upstairs and two confirmed downstairs.

One day, coming down the stairs from being up there cleaning,

I took a couple of steps and it was like somebody just

slammed me,

like in the middle of my back. It wasn't like I had lost footing.

It wasn't like someone put their hands on my shoulders.

It was just a force in the middle of my back,

strong enough to knock me down four or five more stairs.

It was the county jail until it closed in 2005,

making it the second oldest continuously operating jail in Texas.

I have always loved historic buildings.

I've been investigating the paranormal since the late 1970s

and to be given an opportunity to help a friend out, he bought this jail.

It sat empty for ten years after they closed and he buys historic properties.

He bought it, didn't have the time to devote to it.

To me, it's just a very important part of Lavaca County history, Texas history,

so I offered to come and help him with it,

and I haven't been able to leave since then.

Sheriffs always lived here with their families until 1969

where Sheriff Dodds was shot and killed along with his deputy, Albert Jakubek.

They were the last family to live here in the jail, as a family,

him and Mrs Dodds and their children.

There was a morning where my partner Lisa and I,

we brought up the antiques to start furnishing things.

I'm telling her, "Let's lay down and see how comfortable it is."

This was probably 10:30 in the morning

and just lying there for ten seconds, we hear a growl that fills up this room.

One of the deputies said, he said, "I hated being here by myself."

He said, "I would sit in that cage room at the front by the switchboard."

They had intercom, like phones in the cells

where you pushed the button and you could talk to downstairs.

He said, "Sometimes I would hear those go off when I had no prisoners up there.

I would hear toilets start flushing, when there was no-one up there."

One of the switchboard operators stopped by one day to talk to me outside

and was telling me she worked here for a long time and

I ask "Do you have any experiences when you were working here?"

She goes, "Yeah, each time I worked nights, you could drop by

and see me sitting on those steps out there, smoking,

until somebody showed up because I just..."

She said, "I would sit in there and we had like intercom phones with the buttons that light up."

She said, "All the buttons would light up, like all the offices,

somebody's in all the offices on the phones when there's no-one here."

I was in that back break room mopping,

and I heard a noise that came from that end of the hallway.

The whole side of that doorway just became blackened

and this thing just took up more and more room.

I mean it was just like a giant, dark cloud.

I knew that was something that I did not want to go up against.

Rush of wind like a wind tunnel coming down this hallway

to the point where it made my hair stand up,

and I probably dove out that back kitchen door in about two strides.

I was very scared.

- It was myself and Debra and three other people. - OK.

But for me, personally, I mean I know you ran out as well, but for me personally,

I mean it was just a feeling of terror,

like just straight up terror and fear

and I couldn't breathe and I felt a heaviness on my chest

and I've never experienced anything like that before.

So I have not been up here since and that was probably about two years ago.

Where did you see this black mass, this energy. Was it right here?

It passed right behind here... OK... and it was big

and it stopped and it was just darker than dark.

I was standing in front of that wall but looking that way.

I could see that all of a sudden it was blocking out as it moved by,

all the squares. - it was.

So you both saw it. Absolutely. That's pretty cool

when it's validated by other people. Yes.

So let's try to communicate and figure out who this was. Great.

I think that's really important to, there's so much mystery and death

and all different things we talked about here.

You know, the documents being lost in the flood.

And I think your experience was so profound

that it's almost like you can't comprehend that and it shocks you, right? Yeah.

So, now... Did you feel like an energy about it?

Like, did it feel negative? It felt very negative. For me, it was very negative.

What I wanna try to do is make physical contact.

You have my permission to try to do that to me.

Lisa and Debra are in here.

I know there was something, or somebody, that you saw moving here,

this large shadow figure, moving over here.

Can we try to make contact with that person?

There's a woman's voice right there. That was her voice.

Mary, are you in here?

Mary, can you try to reach out, grab my arm.

Yes, I am.

Who's the man that's talking?

Can you give us your name. The one, the shadow figure, the huge man that walks over here?

Can we see you? Can you appear again, whoever this was?

Just said, "Dead."

Cellmate? Did that say cellmate? Cellmate. It did sound like cellmate.

Did they say, "Cellmate," back then? Like cellmate. Yeah. Yeah.

It's getting really strong.

Sheriff John, are you up here with us, keeping guard on everything?

Yes.

Cody, are you up here with Debra?

Yes, I am. What did he say? Sounded like, "Yes, I am."

And now you're keeping an eye on me?

How many prisoners are up here with you, Cody?

Eight. He said, "Eight."

More outside, perhaps?

I thought it said, like, "Perhaps more outside." More outside, yeah.

Did you hear what that just said?

Who, who are you calling names to?

Whoa, that's pretty loud in here.

You can come in here and sit down and talk to us.

- Are you coming up the stairs? - Back here.

Can you say one of our names?

Don't say it was Lisa. It just said, "Lisa."

That's what I heard.

I'm gonna cry.